This study investigated the differences in the type and frequency of strategies used by high scoring and low scoring Iranian IELTS candidacies. The participants were required to read two types of Academic IELTS reading comprehension texts. The study used think-aloud procedures to have an in-depth investigation of reading strategies used by the readers while doing the reading module of the IELTS test. The strategies that emerged from the think-aloud procedures were coded and categorized based on Oxford’s (1990) taxonomy of reading strategies. Then, the strategies used by the two groups were compared in terms of type and frequency. The results demonstrated a major difference between the two groups of candidates in the use of compensation and metacognitive strategies among the other strategies offered by Oxford (1990). The high scoring readers employed these strategies in different ways and more frequently than the other group.
